Martin Conta Saldana, has been working for Boeing for 28 years. United Aerospace Workers Local 148 union has arranged for a series of training sessions and job fairs to help employees find work after the Boeing C-17 plant closes next summer.
Stephen Carr — Staff photographer

Martin Conca Saldana knew the end of the line was coming for the C-17, but that doesn’t make it any easier to leave Boeing Co. after a 28-year career.

“It’s still a shock,” said the Boeing mechanic from Carson about receiving his layoff notice. “You see the end coming but to see the physical notice, it’s a tearjerker.”

Saldana, 51, joined other soon-to-be-displaced Boeing workers at a Lakewood hall this week seeking job training and assistance. The center was set up by the union representing more than 1,000 mechanics and others who work the Globemaster III C-17 at the Boeing plant in East Long Beach.

Workers recently began assembling the last C-17, a yearlong process that is expected to be completed next summer. Many workers have already retired or transferred out of state to other Boeing facilities, but many of the more than 2,000 employees in Long Beach affected by the decision are in their late 40s and early 50s with families they are reluctant to uproot.

“A lot of us put in 30 years with the company. For some, this is the only job they’ve ever had,” said UAW President Randy Sossaman, who was elected in May. “It’s the anxiety and fear of the unknown.”

Moving to another Boeing facility is not an option for Saldana, who has two children, ages 5 and 8. Their pictures are attached to the company badge he wears around his neck.

He said he worries that he won’t find a job with good benefits.

“The pay’s great here — the 401(k), the benefits — but where are you going to find that now?” Saldana said. “What company does that anymore? I have little ones. I gotta work at least until I’m 65. It’s going to be tough.”

The Boeing depot where Saldana works is set to close in the fall, when mechanics finish servicing P 189, the C-17 that crash-landed in Afghanistan two years ago.

On Aug. 1, Boeing sent out 60-day advance layoff notifications to employees who work in Long Beach, with the effective layoff date of Oct. 3. The move comes nearly a year after company officials announced that Boeing did not have enough orders to justify keeping open the Long Beach facility, where the military cargo planes have been assembled for more than two decades.

In a statement, the company said it is abiding by the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement dealing with reductions of its union-represented workforce and is providing career transition services to assist employees.

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“We recognize how closing the C-17 line will affect the lives of the men and women who work here, and we are providing assistance to employees and their families through the Boeing Employee Assistance Program and other resources,” the company said.

The union training series, which partners United Aerospace Workers Local 148 with the UAW-Labor Employment Training Center and other agencies, is open to all Boeing employees, including management, and includes access to computers, mail and electronic resume distribution services and job search coaching.

Job assistance will take place from 1-4 p.m. Monday through Friday until the plant closes next year. Additionally, a training fair will be held Aug. 27 and a job fair Sept. 17.

Pomona resident Mario Ayala, a 49-year-old structure mechanic who’s worked at Boeing for 26 years, came to the union hall because he needs to find a job before October to support his wife and four children, ages 10, 14, 16 and 18.

Ayala will be joining thousands of others in the region looking for work in a job landscape vastly different from what it was 26 years ago when he was hired at 23, he said.

“We’re from a different era where we filled out an application to get jobs,” he said. “Now everything’s done online. It’s scary. There might be no jobs.”

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